Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards – 2014
They’re out again and as usual here are my thoughts on each one of them. After reading these, I’m very glad I watched Wrestle Kingdom.
Wrestler of the Year – Shinsuke Nakamura
I have a feeling it’s another year of the Japan. I haven’t seen much of Nakamura, but I still go with Seth Rollins over everyone else.
MMA Most Valuable Fighter – Ronda Rousey
I ask this every year and I’ll ask it again: why is a wrestling newsletter giving out MMA awards?
Most Outstanding Wrestling – AJ Styles
I’ve heard a lot of good things about his work, but I’m still not clear how this is different than Wrestler of the Year. And no I’m not asking for an explanation.
Best Box Office Draw – Ronda Rousey
See all my other MMA responses. For actual wrestlers, probably Cena.
Feud of the Year – Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier
Good grief we get it already. For a wrestling feud, eh probably Rollins vs. Ambrose or whatever I picked for my award.
Tag Team of the Year – Young Bucks
I can go with this as it’s not like the Usos were really all that great. It’s a down period for tag teams but there’s some hope on the horizon in the Ascension. Yes I still like them.
Most Improved – Rusev
I believe he means Lana but I’m fine with this one, though again I’d pick Rollins. From the guy considered the weakest of the Shield to top heel in the company? That’s pretty improving.
Best on Interviews – Paul Heyman.
Next.
Most Charismatic – Shinsuke Nakamura
Based on Wrestle Kingdom, I have no issue with this one.
Best Technical Wrestler – Zac Sabre Jr.
I haven’t seen anything of his either.
Best Brawler – Tomohiro Ishii
Yep WWE doesn’t exist this year. Ishii is one of those guys who don’t sell anything and fans write it off as tradition or fighting spirit or whatever else they can come up with as excuse.
Best Flying Wrestler – Ricochet
You might know him better as Prince Puma. No one really springs to my mind to beat him so I can live with this again.
Most Overrated – Kane
How can you be overrated when people think you’re one of the worst wrestlers in the world?
Most Underrated – Cesaro
You mean the guy that everyone raves about? How is that underrated? This award usually comes off like “Most Underutilized” as opposed to the previous one being “Most overused.” I get the idea but the award name is kind of misleading.
Promotion of the Year – New Japan
Yeah probably. WWE had a really, really bad year, at least in the second half.
Best Weekly TV Show – NXT
Now we’re getting the hang of this. I think I’ve made my stance clear on this over the year.
Most Outstanding Fighter – Ronda Rousey
Just stop already. Or go post about it on an MMA site.
Match of the Year – AJ Styles vs. Minoru Suzuki
A Japanese guy who wrestles like an MMA fighter? You know Meltzer is all over that. I’ll still take Zayn vs. Neville for the pure emotion though.
Fight of the Year – Johnny Hendricks vs. Robbie Lawler
Good grief. Next.
Rookie of the Year – Dragon Lee II
This would likely be another guy that only Meltzer has ever seen/heard of unless you watch a bunch of obscure wrestling.
Best Non-Wrestler – Paul Heyman
Just name the award after him already. That’s not meant as an insult.
Best Television Announcer – William Regal
I’d go with Renee Young but Regal is a very close second so I have no complaints.
Worst Television Announcer – JBL
Really? With Cole and Lawler around? Or Matt Striker and Vampiro? JBL is annoying but he’s funny when he gets annoyed about the Bunny.
Best Major Show – G1 Climax 24:Day 7
Wrestlemania just means nothing nowadays does it?
Worst Major Wrestling Show – Battleground
I was going to say Bound For Glory, but there was nothing major about that show. Besides, Battleground was actually a good show with the fourway title match and the awesome Usos vs. Wyatts 2/3 falls match. I don’t see why that show gets so much hatred.
Best Wrestling Maneuver – Meltzer Driver
Ok I totally get why he went with this one.
Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic – WWE Insulting Fans Who Bought PPV
Yep. That made me roll my eyes harder than I have in a long time.
Worst Television Show – Monday Night Raw
Oh come on. Raw was bad but Impact could be unwatchable at times and Smackdown was a waste of air time more often than not.
Worst Worked Match of the Year – Bray Wyatt vs. John Cena – Extreme Rules
CAMERON DIDN’T KNOW HOW TO COVER SOMEONE! My goodness really? I know it was a stretch but the Divas should win this every year.
Worst Feud of the Year – Nikki Bella vs. Brie Bella
I think people are sick of me complaining about this feud so I’ll just quickly agree and move on.
Worst Promotion of the Year – TNA
But Impact is still better than Raw or Smackdown? That’s a bit of a stretch.
Best Booker – Gedo and Jado – New Japan
Sure why not.
Promoter of the Year – Dana White – UFC
NEXT.
Best Gimmick – Rusev and Lana
……really? The best gimmick is something that was tired thirty years ago? Ambrose being insane or Mizdow didn’t win here?
Worst Gimmick – Adam Rose
Disagree again. Rose was fine for what he was but then they turned him and killed the potential he had. As for a worst gimmick, probably Cameron’s stuck up girl character, just because she’s so horrible at everything.
Best Pro Wrestling Book – The Death of WCW
I’m going to need an explanation here because this won ten years ago. Revised edition I’m guessing?
Best Pro Wrestling DVD – Ladies and Gentlemen, My Name Is Paul Heyman
I’ve heard great things about this and need to watch it.
Overall, it’s about what I expected: MMA and New Japan dominating everything. Now in this case I’m a bit more understanding as WWE had a very bad year and New Japan is clearly the second biggest promotion in the world. I know Meltzer is very biased towards New Japan and it’s hard to complain about that as it’s going to show up no matter where you go. And yes, I’m aware that Meltzer’s readers do the voting, and if you believe the majority of them aren’t just repeating his views on things, you’re more delusional than Eva Marie about why she has a job. Just get rid of the MMA stuff and these are far more tolerable.
Meltzer needs stop putting UFC Awards into his voting for Wrestling Awards. The fact that UFC won Feud of the year is a laugh. How about Dean Ambrose/Seth Rollins,Daniel Bryan vs The Authority,John Cena vs Bray Wyatt. Show of the year should have gone to WM 30 or Summerslam.
KB makes great points regarding the Overrated and Underrated categories. Who on this planet, besides Vince McMahon, thinks Kane is worth a crap? Who’s not aware, again with the exception of WWE management, that Cesaro is a great talent? Either change the categories to Most Overpushed and Underpushed or scrap them.
For example, my personal favorite for Most Underrated sounds a little ridiculous, considering he’s been a top star for over a decade and has something like 12 World title reigns under his belt, but I’d go with Randy Orton. He’s been battered by smart fans and journalists his whole career, but I think he’s one of the most effective heels I’ve ever seen. Intensity, timing, and selflessness are key virtues that Orton possesses in spades. He can’t carry lesser talents to great matches, but his bouts vs Daniel Bryan resulted in a plethora of 4 and a half star results. And, unlike so very few of today’s modern heels, he generates great, legit heat.
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
That’s all I got out of this.
Why are you writing as if Meltzer himself was the one that chose the awards? These awards were chosen by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter readers.
As I said, I don’t believe for a second that the majority of votes are doing anything more than just repeating what Meltzer says.
Not the first time nor the last time I’ll be called that.
Worst Worked MAtch of the Year: I got this and Last Man Standing match mixed up but yeah… It was boring and had a stupid (but kinda creepy) ending but there were waaay worse matches this year.
Wrestler of the Year – Shinsuke Nakamura (To think, this guy’s their Intercontinental Champion. My favorite wrestler in the world right now.)
Most Outstanding Wrestling – AJ Styles (I would have gone with Tomohiro Ishii based on how consistent I thought he was but AJ had a really good year too.)
Feud of the Year – Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier (Ambrose vs. Rollins says hi.)
Tag Team of the Year – Young Bucks (I met them at a TNA house show a few years back. Great guys.)
Most Improved – Rusev (Agreed.)
Best on Interviews – Paul Heyman (His wannabes promo after Wrestlemania is still one of my favorite promos ever.)
Most Charismatic – Shinsuke Nakamura (YEAOH!)
Best Technical Wrestler – Zac Sabre Jr. (First time since 2003 that someone other than Daniel Bryan won this. Haven’t seen his stuff.)
Best Brawler – Tomohiro Ishii (I know you don’t like his style but the fact that he walked out of G1 with just a separated shoulder is impressive. I like him a lot.)
Best Flying Wrestler – Ricochet (His match with Ibushi was really good.)
Most Overrated – Kane (At least give the man credit for being able to have a match in dress shoes.)
Most Underrated – Cesaro (The name of the awards bug me too but I really want him to be good. His tag team with Kidd has potential.)
Promotion of the Year – New Japan (Rocky first half of the year but the G1 Climax woke them up.)
Best Weekly TV Show – NXT (Perfect way to demonstrate how to book a wrestling show to wrestling students.)
Match of the Year – AJ Styles vs. Minoru Suzuki (I was hoping this one would win. Even for puro I think you’d like it.)
Rookie of the Year – Dragon Lee II (Should have picked Trevor Lee, he’s gonna be incredible in the next few years.)
Best Non-Wrestler – Paul Heyman (Again, wannabes promo.)
Best Television Announcer – William Regal (He can do commentary on grass growing and make it interesting.)
Worst Television Announcer – JBL (Was a three way tie not an option?)
Best Major Show – G1 Climax 24: Day 7 (I liked this one a lot but I would have gone with Wrestlemania.)
Worst Major Wrestling Show – Battleground (Bound For Glory was worse.)
Best Wrestling Maneuver – Meltzer Driver (Every match it’s used in automatically gets a 5 star rating.)
Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic – WWE Insulting Fans Who Bought PPV (This pissed me off more than anything. Why would you do that to fans as loyal as yours? Some of them don’t have internet access or a smartphone, ever thought of that?)
Worst Television Show – Monday Night Raw (Yep.)
Worst Worked Match of the Year – Bray Wyatt vs. John Cena – Extreme Rules (Not even close. Any match with Cameron or the Gracie Brothers were waaaay worse. The match was good too, it just had a stupid ending.)
Worst Feud of the Year – Nikki Bella vs. Brie Bella (I cringe whenever one of them gets a mic.)
Worst Promotion of the Year – TNA (Considering they lost their TV deal, can’t disagree.)
Best Booker – Gedo and Jado (are Gedo and Jado.)
Best Gimmick – Rusev and Lana (Nah, I like throwback gimmicks as much as the next guy but Mizdow as a stunt double, Wyatt as a cult leader, The Vaudevillians as vaudeville strongmen, Nakamura as an MMA-fighting art school wierdo, and CM Punk as a sticky note were better.)
Worst Gimmick – Adam Rose (The gimmick was fine, the writers were the ones that squandered it.)
Best Pro Wrestling Book – The Death of WCW (That reminds me, I need to start reading Jericho’s new book)
Best Pro Wrestling DVD – Ladies and Gentlemen, My Name Is Paul Heyman (I gotta check that one out.)
This is the first I’m seeing these. I am a bit surprised Nakamura got the top award over A.J. Styles, but there’s no doubting Nakamura’s greatness, or charisma. Why, oh why, does an MMA matchup get Feud of the Year? This wasn’t the best year for intriguing wrestling programs, but still. They nailed it on Tag Team of the Year, and Most Improved.
Because Observer voters are all about workrate and match quality and usually ignore intangibles that often elevate bouts, I can see why AJ vs Minoru won. But I would have given it to either Daniel Bryan vs Triple H from Wrestlemania XXX or Brock Lesnar vs John Cena from Summerslam. Same with Best Major Show. They could have picked any number of New Japan cards, including a handful of the G1 events, and not been wrong. But this year’s version of Wrestlemania has been called by many the best one ever, and is generally accepted as one of the top 3 or 4, at least. No, the Lesnar vs Undertaker match won’t go down in history as a technical masterpiece, but it will be remembered for having the most shocking ending to a match since the Montreal Screwjob, and the most shocking scripted ending since Bruno vs Koloff in 1971. After which, the most rabidly over American wrestler since Steve Austin’s heyday was somehow able to unite that arena full of stunned fans with his incredible title win. That, to me, is the Best Major Show of the year.
Raw went from terrific early to mind numbing and contrived, but Impact makes the year’s worst Raw episode look like classic Mid-South wrestling. How does Impact not get this award?
To give the highly mediocre but hardly offensive Wyatt-Cena match from Extreme Rules the title of Worst Worked Match says to me that Observer voters weren’t looking too hard, and probably just wanted to stick it to Vince and Cena.
Observer got it right with Worst Feud, Worst Promotion, and Best DVD, but I’m with you on the Gimmick of the Year award winner. It’s well done and well performed, and I realize every wrestling gimmick and angle is recycled from the past, but how hard is it to get people to boo when you insult them in front of a giant banner of Vladmir Putin?
Of all the matches in the entire year, the cena/Wyatt match was the worst? I can give you plenty from raw in December alone that weren’t as good.
Yeah I can’t get my head around that. I’m assuming it’s because of the kid at the end, but at least that was cool on a level. There was nothing cool about a lot of the horrible things we’ve had to sit through. Like Tommy Dreamer. Anything with Tommy Dreamer.
Can you explain why modern day Tommy Dreamer sucks so much to someone that hasn’t seen him…ever?
Tommy Dreamer was in ECW for about seven years. He has since spent going on fourteen years talking about how much he misses it and how much he wants to keep it alive. He has few natural skills and can do little more than just hit people with weapons and cry about how much he loves wrestling. He hasn’t had a good match in years and is clearly just living off the spirit of ECW, even though wrestling moves on years ago.
Yeah, “Death of WCW” was reissued this year for 10th anniversary edition.